I've messed with it, and it's nice to see the MUCH improved graphics engine at work. They have a decent foundation here, but it's obvious that their combat is a work in progress. I'll mess with it here and there, but I want to avoid getting... attached.

I made a character on each server for each class. I've only achieved a few levels on each to get a feel for things. Archer was the most fun of the three, probably because you can cheese the combat so easily.

I still need to play Archer and mess with crafting. Trying to level CON to 18 for Raise. When you get to 10, there's an NPC by Tam Tara that will raise you to 15 if you meet his conditions and sell you your class gear. I'm on Bahamut server. Character name is the same as it was on retail.

Cleared Tam Tara. They've done a really good job of making sure everyone is rewarded. Quick dungeon, 20-30 minutes with an hour time limit. 15 min re-entry timer. Did some exploring and really impressed with the environment variety in just one "zone." Next batch of invites go out tomorrow.

i have a question about the combat in FFXIV... ive had friends tell me that combat in FFXI in its early days was far more entertaining than FFXIV's. and when i say early days im talking about the times when people actually did skillchains and mb's.

Logged

“Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.”

Is the new graphics engine much more demanding? I was barely cutting it before, though it still played quite smoothly.

FFXIV was one lick short of an orgasm, in my opinion. Blue balls all the way back down, though.

The engine is much more forgiving. There's a little loss of fidelity even on max settings, but it runs at 60fps with a billion people online. I can play on my lappy with ease. You can even run full screen and alt tab without crashing omg! But just remember its an alpha, not all shaders, effects, lighting is in. Though so far its running like butter on half the old HQ requirement.

i have a question about the combat in FFXIV... ive had friends tell me that combat in FFXI in its early days was far more entertaining than FFXIV's. and when i say early days im talking about the times when people actually did skillchains and mb's.

Kind of hard to answer. Inital FFXIV combat in 1.0 did not have an auto attack so you actually had more things to do in battle, it just wasnt very fast paced. After the first battle revision, they sped up the stamina bar and it was much better. The second revision removed stamina and added auto attack, but changed the skill timers and combat became suuuper slow. The final combat revision in 1.0 added the combo system and sped up overall combat, which was great because combos made subsequent WS's use no TP and had added bonuses (think self skill chain without an actual skill chain effect). Combos required directional WS hits too.

Alpha combat right now has only one combo active and is traditional auto attack with global cooldown WS and spells, which is very similar to WoW, Rift etc. There are limit breaks and battle Regemins (skill chains) planned but not implemented. It's really very very early to gauge combat right now, but its much faster than XI or XIV 1.0 ever was.

Crafting and gathering are showcased. They ditched the shit minigame for gathering. Crafting is now modernized with the ability to select what you make and the components are input for you, rather than having to do it manually while having a wiki page open like you did in Final Fantasy XI and XIV 1.0.